When information handling systems, such as personal computers and the like, are mass-produced, a manufacturer may take advantage of a common software configuration when loading software onto the hard drives. For example, a computer system is set up as a model system having the desired software configuration that is to be duplicated in other personal computers. Once the model system has been set up, a digital image of the hard drive is created. The digital image is essentially a “picture” of the hard drive. Creating a digital image of the hard drive is well known to those skilled in the art. Once this image is created, it is distributed to the other hard drives requiring the same configuration. The result is that all of the computer systems receiving a copy of the image during their manufacturing and assembly process will have the same hard drive content as the model system.
For software upgrades on existing computer systems, an image is created for a set of changes to be made to the hard drive and the set of changes are then transferred to the computer systems. This results in quicker computer upgrades, which in turn provides a cost savings, particularly when a large number of computer systems are to be upgraded.
Nonetheless, a disadvantage of this approach is that it requires a model system first be set up utilizing the same operating system and the same set of applications as desired on the other computer systems. To set up the model system, the software must be physically loaded from a disk onto the model computer system before the image can be created for transferring to the other computers.
Even if a group of computers are networked together, a baseline configuration must also be established on the file server which requires that the file server physically be set up with the desired software configuration from a disk. The file server then allows the networked computers to have access to the new configuration. Networking prevents a system administrator from having to install software upgrades individually on each computer system. However, the upgrade must first be made to the file server which requires installation via a disk.
Additionally, in the past, information handling systems, such as desk-top computer systems, laptops, personal digital assistants, digital information appliances, and the like, were sold with little or no software. Therefore, the tasks of obtaining, installing and configuring software were left to the purchaser. However, in the ever increasingly competitive environment of the manufacture and sale of information handling systems, manufacturers generally provide hardware and software in a combined system that preferably, is usable out of the box. Further complicating this process is “build to order” computer systems. In build to order information handling systems, the customer may be given a wide selection of software from which to choose. The complexity and sheer number of choices result in essentially a custom configuration, the complexity of which is greatly increased with each choice or option given to the consumer.
One method utilized to address this problem involved extracting a hard drive from the assembly process, connecting the hard drive to a computer for the purpose of programming the drive, programming the drive, disconnecting the drive from the computer and returning the programmed hard drive to the computer assembly process for installation on a computer. However, this method is time consuming and, therefore costly. Furthermore, disconnection and reconnection of the programmed hard drive may corrupt the software programmed onto the drive.
An additional method utilized to address this problem involved loading the hard drive from a network after the computer hardware is assembled. However, this method results in high traffic on the network. In a large-volume manufacturing environment, this high traffic greatly reduces the throughput of the network. In essence, the greater the number of systems to be manufactured, the greater the requirement of network throughput. Furthermore, a network failure may interrupt and even cripple the entire manufacturing line.
Further, when a user purchases a computer-based information handling system from a manufacturer, the computer system typically includes preinstalled devices, device drivers and operating system software such that the computer is ready to operate out-of-the box upon receipt by the user. Ideally, no technical effort is required by the user beyond connecting the cables, plugging the power cable into a power outlet, and turning on the computer. Thus, computer-based information handling systems are readily available to the masses including those having very little or no technical computer background or training.
During the lifetime of the computer system, users may wish to expand the functionality of the computer system by installing additional devices to the computer system that were not preinstalled at the factory by the manufacturer. Often, the additional or “add-on” devices are new products that did not exist as of the manufacture date of the computer system, thus the manufacturer could not design the computer system to fully accommodate these future add-on devices. In order for the add-on devices to work with the computer system and its operating system software, a device driver for the add-on device is also installed such that the computer system may recognize and utilize the add-on device. Further, the user may obtain updated drivers for the factory installed devices as they become available. Thus, eventually, the computer-based information handling system is customized beyond the factory setup by the installation of additional devices and device drivers.
At some point during the lifetime of the computer-based information handling system, it is possible the user may choose to reinstall the operating system software. Typically, the computer system manufacturer provides a system restoration medium such as a diskette or compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) that includes the drivers for all the devices that were preinstalled in the computer system when manufactured. The restore diskette or CD-ROM ensures that when the operating system is reinstalled to the hard disk drive, all of the necessary device drivers will be automatically installed, thereby restoring the computer system to the state as provided by the manufacturer. Prior art restoration methods only provide a diskette or CD-ROM that contains an image or “mirror” of the state of the computer system as of the date the system was shipped from the factory. However, in the event the user has customized his or her computer system by installing additional devices after manufacture and before the reinstallation process, the operating system will not have the proper driver available for those add-on devices. As a result, no driver is installed for those devices. Further, any updated drivers for factory installed devices will also not be installed. This is because the restore diskette or CD-ROM only contains information of the state of the computer system as manufactured, but does not include information pertaining to the customization of the computer system with add-on devices or driver updates. Thus, the reinstallation process cannot be automatically completed, and user intervention is required to complete the reinstallation process. Completion of the restoration process by the user at this stage is often complicated and requires a level of technical knowledge and sophistication beyond that possessed by the typical user.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved method for restoring an information handling system with current software components.